45worlds - Phantom Gtowner

Phantom Gtowner

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1658 Points / Joined 7 Oct 2012 /

Canada / Southern Ontario

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Collection 1

Wishlist 12

I started aquiring 45's in December 1958 and continue to the present. Collecting seriously beginning ca. 1975. Anything on 45 RPM from 1949 to 1990 interests me. Happy to chat any time.

Comments (CD Albums) View All 18 »

Member	Item		Review/Comment
Phantom Gtowner 7th Mar 2021		CD Album Art Garfunkel - Garfunkel	Review I purchased this CD for only one reason. To get "Second Avenue", perhaps my all-time favorite Garfunkel track on CD. You see, this tune had only been available as a 45 since 1974 and I needed to hear it again desperately. Okay, so here we get an abbreviated version which is extremely annoying. Even on this collection there is a certain amount of wallpaper like "When A Man Loves A Woman". Yes it is a fine song but, my gawd, why has everybody and his brother recorded it? Truthfully I am sick of it. The best tracks are stunning, "All I Know", "Bright Eyes", "99 Miles From L.A." and "A Heart In New York" to go along with the previous mentioned "Second Avenue". Other tracks I didn't really need or want are the syrupy "So Much In Love" and the redundant "What A Wonderful World". One of Garfunkel's problems is that he doesn't write his own music so in that regard he is at the mercy of others. In the past, though he nearly always had impeccable taste in choosing his material like Stephen Bishop's "Looking For The Right One" or Van Morrison's "I Shall Sing", neither of which is included here unfortunately. In short, this might be a good starting place for you to enjoy Art Garfunkel and his glorious voice but after you digest this, and it won't take long, you need to dig deeper. 7 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Phantom Gtowner 7th Mar 2021		CD Album Michael Nesmith - ... Tropical Campfires ...	Review This CD marked a return to a more rootsy sound on several of the 12 tracks. In many ways this recording may be his crowning accomplishment. The musicianship is excellent, production and sound also very good. The band comprises of John Hobbs on keyboards, Joe Chemay on bass, Red Rhodes on steel guitar, John Jorgenson on guitar & mandolin, Louis Conte on percussion and Nesmith on guitar. “Yellow Butterfly” is the opening track and while understated and fairly uneventful, it seems noteworthy that a steel guitar is in evidence subtly telling us the frivolity of “The Newer Stuff” is a thing of the past. "Laugh Kills Lonesome" is an up-tempo piano driven cowboy song based on a Charles Russell painting of the same name. "Julianna" is a romantic love song without much if any country flavor. "Brazil", one of three cover songs, is sung convincingly in Spanish and surprisingly fits in with all the rest. The other two covers are both by Cole Porter "In The Still Of The Night" and "Begin The Beguine". He amazingly manages to blend these somewhat jazzy pieces into a mix with country, tex-mex and Spanish rhythms…and with ease. Other stand-out tracks are “Moon Over The Rio Grande”, a track that Roy Rogers would have been proud to do and “Rising In Love”, a happy little song that is sneaky good. The two part track, “One…For The Island” is particularly entertaining, especially the first section which is mostly instrumental and quite delightful. It all ends with "Twilight On The Trail", another cowboy song much along the lines of "Prairie Lullaby" and several other songs he's done in this vein. This is a very easy CD to like. It’s got melody, lyrics and fine arrangements. Beginning probably with “Infinite Rider”, he seems to have become much more adventuresome and versatile as a tunesmith, something that was not quite as evident on his earlier LP’s. It is another recording that would be a good introduction to those who don't know his music. Whenever I'm listening to Nesmith I'm always thinking, "When is the rest of world going to discover this guy?" Well, it’s probably too late and the truth is the rest of the world missed out. This CD is as good as it gets. 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Phantom Gtowner 7th Mar 2021		CD Album Barry Manilow - The Greatest Songs Of The Fifties	Review Barry Manilow did some very good pop music from the mid 1970's and into the 1980's. "Mandy", "Could It Be Magic" and "Weekend In New England", amongst several others, are all finely crafted pop songs. But nothing he did, even in his heyday, could be described in any way as "cutting edge" and Barry himself would probably agree. This latest CD is comprised of 1950's standards and is done extremely well and in a very professional manner. He covers pre-rock tunes like Tony Bennett's "Rags To Riches" and The Four Lads' "Moments To Remember" to post rock songs such as The Everly Brothers' "All I Have To Do Is Dream" and Frankie Avalon's "Venus". His voice sounds pretty good too for a guy who must be at least 60 years of age. I like Barry Manilow and I actually like this CD. It is miles better, and infinitely more interesting, than any of Rod Stewart’s latest recordings. Despite it’s apparent popularity, there is a bigger picture. Something tells me that when you record CD’s of old well known songs and play Las Vegas, your career as a valid artist is essentially over. 3 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Phantom Gtowner 22nd Jun 2020		CD Album The Monkees - Instant Replay	Review Released in February 1969, officially this was the first Monkees LP without Peter Tork. He made his exit from the group in December 1968 so this is the first Monkees release without him. Well, not really. All the tracks on this CD were recorded while Peter was still involved although he isn't mentioned as a vocalist or intsrumentalist anywhere in the liner notes. This 1995 CD by Rhino contains all original twelve tracks plus seven more bonus selections. The group recorded nine LP's between 1966 and 1970, yet until the CD age, probably half of their recorded works were unreleased. Hence all these "bonus" tracks many of which are as good or better than what was issued in the 1960's. This CD is a real mixed bag of Monkees music, most of them recorded in 1968 although a couple of tracks, "I Won't Be The Same Without Her" and "Tear Drop City" go back to 1966. "Tear Drop City" was the 45 RPM release from Instant Replay, a tune that sounded like an inside-out version of "Last Train To Clarksville" and only half as good. It climbed only to #56 on the Billboard top 100, a sign that the Monkees had lost a lot of their sales momentum. Exposure from their TV series was long over and they were viewed by many as being phonies because they generally didn't play on their recordings. Other bands were given a pass on this kind of behavior including, although not exclusively, the Byrds and the Beach Boys. Surprisingly the recording is not that bad. It's not their finest hour but it's very listenable and has the mark of all the talented professionals that went into the making of it. The recordings were done sporadically and the producers include Boyce & Hart, Bones Howe, Carole Bayer & Neil Sedaka and in addition Mike Nesmith, Mickey Dolenz and Davy Jones. Much of the arranging is attributed to Shorty Rogers and Don McGinnis. 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Phantom Gtowner 8th Apr 2020		CD Album Michael Nesmith - Rays	Review “Rays” is the first release from Michael Nesmith in a dozen years. It becomes very apparent on listening he put a lot of time and passion into it and it’s great to hear something new from this most underrated and ignored singer/songwriter. Many tunes are instrumental and on first listen sound like T.V. documentary themes and some of the vocal tracks suffer from heavy handed arrangements. By that I mean the vocals tend to be partially drowned out by the instruments. This is not some sort of oversight by Nesmith, he worked on this project for roughly five years, maybe more. I’m sure he designed it that way. I know it’s just me, but I find this frustrating and impedes my listening enjoyment. One thing that really impressed me was the percussion throughout this recording. Nesmith nearly always uses interesting percussionists. It’s a good piece of work but a little disappointing for me. I would have wanted far less instrumentals and more vocals. Stand out tracks are the title track and “Follows the Heart”, proof that he can still write great tunes. Maybe next time…let’s see, at this rate, what will that be, 2018 maybe? (review written in 2007) 3 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Latest Added (CD Albums)

CD Album added by Phantom Gtowner 8th Apr 2020:

Michael Nesmith - Rays - Video Ranch - USA (2006)

Recently Rated (CD Albums)

CD Album: Jackie Shane - All The Singles Plus The Concert - Cookin' - Unknown Country

Rated 10 by Phantom Gtowner